


Failure Is An Option

by tinamachina



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-05
Updated: 2013-08-05
Packaged: 2017-12-22 11:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinamachina/pseuds/tinamachina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toby learns that magic is a mixture of luck, skill, pain and pleasure.  Based upon a lyric from Fort Minor's "Remember The Name", per request.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Failure Is An Option

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EffingEden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EffingEden/gifts).



“Ten-percent luck, twenty-percent skill, fifteen-percent concentrated power of will, five-percent pleasure, and fifty-percent pain.”

This is the approximate recipe for magic, as Jareth explained it to his student. There was a delicate balance of ingredients needed to make a wizard. It was like the difference between baking cookies and making tiramisu—the balance separated the sorcerers from the flim-flam artists. 

Magic took more than simply wishing, Jareth taught him. You needed to really focus, truly think out what you are about to conjure. Talent helped, and it did not hurt to have the Good Fortunes on your side, or have the stars in the proper alignment for a spell to really pop.

Of course, magic required failure, lots of failure. As often as Toby singed his fingertips with a fireball spell, or cut his fingers when a crystal ball burst in his hand, Jareth showed him the scars of his own failures. There were some impressive scars on Jareth’s hands and arms—it was the reason why he constantly wore gloves—and they all formed a purplish-white web of scar tissue running all the way up to Jareth’s shoulder blades. They were the marks of spells that went horribly wrong, or beasts that were carelessly conjured and not easily tamed.

Failure was an option; quitting was not. Quitting was not for the prince consort of the Goblin Kingdom. 

So Toby put up with a lot of pain, but there was also that five percent, that thrill of a spell done right. It was like a quick burst of energy behind his eyes, an electric current of magic running through his body, a tingle of arcane power underneath his skin. It was kind of like that first night in Jareth’s arms, after Toby came to the Labyrinth of his own free will. It was like that first release, that first climax, without the mess.

Magic was worth the pain, especially with Jareth willing to kiss away the aches.


End file.
